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WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

(www.nytimes.com)
713 points greenburger | 7 comments | 16 Jun 25 13:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.671s | source | bottom
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robertlagrant ◴[16 Jun 25 14:20 UTC] No.44289775[source]▶
> When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, the messaging app had a clear focus. No ads, no games and no gimmicks.

This sort of analysis is very surface-level I think. My impression is WhatsApp offered that by running on VC money and had no plan to run an actual business. That's not a question of focus. It's an unsustainable, please monetise me later land grab.

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1. ndriscoll ◴[16 Jun 25 16:24 UTC] No.44291027[source]▶
How was it unsustainable? As far as I know they were simply competent. They charged $1/year, so had ~half a billion in revenue, right? They probably could've bumped that to $2-$5/year with similar uptake. And they ran it with ~500 servers and 50 employees 12 years ago, so could probably do the same with ~50 or fewer servers today.
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2. robertlagrant ◴[16 Jun 25 17:05 UTC] No.44291351[source]▶
They're doing a lot more now, though. Voice notes; multi-way video and audio calls; e2ee. And they barely even charged $1/year. I never paid for it.
3. YetAnotherNick ◴[16 Jun 25 20:45 UTC] No.44293233[source]▶
Whatsapp revenue was $10M and the cost of revenue was $52M, with total net loss of $138M/yr just before facebook acquisition.

[1]: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000132680114...

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4. jpalawaga ◴[16 Jun 25 23:11 UTC] No.44294219[source]▶
they also never required many of their users to pay. whatsapp allegedly cost $1 a year, and I never paid a dime despite using it for years.
5. RestlessMind ◴[17 Jun 25 00:19 UTC] No.44294560[source]▶
They never charged everyone. I was on Android back then and never paid a dime. Neither did anyone I know who was using Whatsapp on Android
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6. xeromal ◴[17 Jun 25 01:20 UTC] No.44294884[source]▶
They did charge me and I gladly paid.
7. lomase ◴[17 Jun 25 08:45 UTC] No.44296976[source]▶
It was free on Android but paid on IOS.